Whoever goes to a dentist's office for treatment is acquainted with the chairside bowl into which patients relieve themselves of excess saliva (and blood) occasioned by the dentist's ministrations. Such waste liquids are flushed away through concealed plumbing to a conventional sanitary drain, to which people give little thought, at least so long as everything is operating satisfactorily. At home, there may be various outlets nearby for waste liquids. However, if a person is immobilized in bed, whether at home or in a hospital, such an outlet or immediate assistance may be unavailable. There is a substantial, even critical, need for sanitary successors to such portable items as liquid-soaked tissues and fabrics or liquid-filled spittoons, cups, bedpans, and the like--which at best necessitate additional transporting (also cleaning if intended to be reusable).
Attempts by others to meet this need have failed to do so. U.S. patentees have proposed such devices as piped-in non-portable sanitary cuspidors, by Walker in U.S. Pat. No. 1,046,911 and Korten in U.S. Pat. No. 1,231,385, and similar funnel-like receptor means by Otte in U.S. Pat. No. 3,965,006; and a temporary holding tank above a toilet by Sevigny in U.S. Pat. No. 4,823,428. The present inventor's disclosure--in his U.S. Pat. No. 5,117,511--of liquid disposal means installed in a motor vehicle predisposed him to give serious consideration to the need for related means in hospitals.
Wherever potential users do not have ready access to a piped-in waste liquid receptor, the earlier mentioned portable containers are commonly used despite the trouble of transporting and cleaning them. The present invention is intended to meet the need for sanitary collection and disposal of waste liquid conveniently and effectively, while avoiding the impracticalities of those alternative practices.